Saturday 26 April 2008

Moreton Fisheries Review





Spent a recent Day Session at Moreton Fisheries Astbury Congleton.First impressions were the guy at the lodge Mal I believe his name was,had to be one of the grouchiest guys to run a fishery ever,gave the impression that coming to the front door to get the money for the session was a major pain.£7 I paid, for two rods might have been more but I was reluctant to ask as he cursed f&&&in hell when I gave him a tenner and he had to get change.With those jollities out of the way I decided to walk around the lake for a closer inspection,there was a pond across the road called peck's pool which has some sort of float fishing only rule,for a largely bottom feeding fish seemed more trouble than it was worth,and there had to be some bigger monsters in the main lake didn't there?,also there was a cottage pool but this was a bit too close to the grouch for comfort.I wasted the first couple of hours trieing some pop ups recommended to me from Pickerings before I tried my trusty home made boilies,bang into a carp about five minutes after it was in the water,after that I picked up fish roughly every 2o minutes ranging from about 8 to 15 pounds on simple bolt rigs,about 1.00 pm when I was musing if there was anything bigger a couple of lads set up on the corner of the island opposite and cast across my main lines,fair due I was fishing some 100 yards out,but I had to reel them in before we snagged each other.They picked up a few fish mainly off my baited area, try as I might couldn't locate any carp closer in,so effective end of session,something was regularly crashing to my left,this would have meant a move which I contemplated wasn't justified for the time leaft.I've included a few pics of the fish I caught,I've seen carp in better condition,but they fought well and gave cracking runs.In conclusion if you can get over the inital shock of the grouch at the lodge and the drone off traffic on the A34 behind you it's a nice enough place to fish with herons and ducks(a pain as usual!),some of the pegs could use a little refurbishment,wellies are in order as maybe to recent downpours/flooding you can't walk all the way around the lake.marks 3/10 with new guy at lodge 7/10. the lodge ogre was the the only monster I came up against that day.

Sunday 6 April 2008

Westport Lake


Good luck to the lads bivvied down at Westport Lake,who attended a work party last weekend so they could fish 4 weeks early,true dedicated carpers.This water now being handled by Middleport Angling Club,also day tickets available (from Pickerings).When I was first taken fishing here by my next door neighbour Mr Crane ,(some cough 35 years ago)we had some great fishing and better than I remember of late,but there's still an unknown quantity of thirties ,check the pic on the ice cream van,or some of Chiles fish, Stapely central stand,you might need some field binoculars to track them,but the rewards are there.The Landscape has changed from when I was a lad and a new energy efficient visitor centre is currently being constructed on what was a grassy slope decades ago.Although not as scenic as Trentham,Rudyard or Knypersely it has it's own charm and maybe a whacker for those that persevere.check this satellite link http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=westport+lake+stoke+map&ie=UTF8&ll=53.048889,-2.217093&spn=0.004295,0.009656&t=k&z=16
Shaun Pickerill